The Origin of writing is not a simple matter. As archeological items are found and carbon-dated, how is one able to discern from geometric shapes incribed on item as designs to symbols created to inscribe information. Writing is the inscription of characters on a medium, therefor creating a record of information.
Most writing systems can be divided in three categories; logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic. Logographs, a system of pictures and symbols, are considered the oldest form of writing. The major logogram writing systems are Hieroglyphs, Mayan Glyphs, Cuneiform, and Chinese character. The first believed writing system originated in Sumer (Southern Mesopotamia) in the form of cuneiform somewhere around the late 3rd millennium BCE. Egyptions, around the same time, invented hieroglyphs, becoming widespread by the mid 3rd millennium. The Chinese script originated around the 16th century BCE out of a late neolithic Chinese system of proto-writing dating back to 6000 BCE. The Mayan Glyphs also seemed to have developed independantly.
Chinese writing depicts each character to represent an idea or complete word, leaving no clue for the pronunciation. This required to knowledge of thousands of separate characters. Alphabets and syllabaries require a lot less symbols since they are based sounds.
The alphabet was invented in Ugarit around teh 2nd Millennium BCE. It was derived from Cuneiform writing system. This form of alphabet slowly evolved into the Phoenican alphabet. The Phoenicians, being great sea traders, spread the alphabet . It is considered the ancestory of all modern alphabets and syllabaries.
Uses
There are two counter-arguments to the importance of writing thought up by Plato. Plato believed that writing would destroy the memory of people. This turned out to be true, since people back then could memorize thousands of lines of poetry in only a few hearings. Writing destroyed that ability of short-term memory. He also thought writing was dangerous because the ideas of the writer could be misunderstood by the reader. A speaker can explain his ideas clearly and answer questions. A writer has to predict misunderstandings and questions beforehand. Those may seem like disadvantages, but let's face it, writing is important.
Writing allows us to notice changes over time. Without writing we can not fully understand history. And understanding history is one step closer to preventing repeated mistakes from happening. Sure with writing, we loose our memory. But we don't need it as much. With writing, we can think one step furthur and analyze and order information, categorizing. After all, analysis is a lot more important than memory. What's the use of remembering something if you can't understand it. Writing shares with us experience and knowledge other people have already done. We don't need to rediscover knowledge in every generation nor do we need to personally know people with specialized knowledge. Writing allows us to build on idea people have left behind so that we can advance and create new technology. Writing is knowledge, without it, how else would civilization learn from past mistakes.
Spread
Phoenican evolved into Hebrew and Arabic within the same region. With the spread of Islam, the Arabic script became a base for other languages. Urdu and Farsi use a form of Arabic in Pakistan, North India, Iran, and Afghanistan. Maldivian and Syriac are also adaptaion from Arabic in the Indian Ocean and Middle East respectively.
The Phoenican alphabet spread to Carthage as the Punic Alphabet and was also adapted to form the Greek Alphabet (The first alphabetic system to use symbols for vowels). Greek was adopted by the Etruscans to become the Latin alphabet of the Roman Empire.
The spread of the Latin Alphabet was so great that it is considered as THE alphabet. It was used by the Americas, Western Europe, Africa, and a few areas in Asia, being adopted to form alphabets like Quechua, Guarani, Swahili, and Xhosa, Vietnamese, Malay, and Tagalog.
The Cyrillic alphabet, found in Eastern Orthodox Europe (Russian, Bulgarians, Serbians) was based on the Greek and Latin alphabet. The Greek Alphabet also inspired the Egyption Coptic script, Armenian and Georgian.
Aramic, adopted from Phoenicians, was found in Central Asia. It also went to the origin of Ethiopia to script Amharic. From Aramic, the Mongolian script was derived and Brahmi was derived for North India languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Gujarati. Southern India adapted an evolved North Indian syllabaries into languages like Pali, Tamil, and Singhalese. As Buddhism spread to South East Asia, the curved scripts also went further east.
There were many factors that helped spread written language. Merchant traders and religion were common vessels that allowed writing like Arabic to spread. The silk road, being a large trading route helped in the spread of writing. The creation of paper in China allowed writing to spread more quickly as it became more abundant.
Blog
Blog Entry 1: late 3rd Millennium
I believe this is when I was formed as cuneiform. The Sumerians, living in southern Mesopotamia, had started using a system of clay tokens to represent commodities. I kept evolving until I was used to keep accounts. The method was by using a round-shaped stylus to inprint into the soft clay at differnt angles to record numbers. It didn't stop at the numbers though. Soon they used for creating pictographs using sharp stylus which would determine what was being counted. By 2500 BCE, they were using wedge-shaped stylus to create logograms that developed into something phonetic. In the end, cuneiform writing was a general writing systems which included logograms, syllables, and numbers.
Blog Entry 2: 400 CE
I have branched off of Phoenician, into Aramaic, to Nabatean, to finally this, Arabic. Used as the writing system for the Holy Quran, I spread quickly across the Din-ul-Islam. Merchants and traders travel across Asia through the Silk Road and I slowly spread. The word of Islam spreads quickly, with it, the Holy Quran, and me. People convert to the religion of peace and hope and I am learned and understood. In modern day, you can find me the official language of Northern Africa and the Middle East.
Blog Entry 3: 6000 BCE
You seem to have found something, historians. The question is, is it I, Writing...or something else...? You have no way of knowing and I have no way of telling. Sure you found some tortoise-shell carving that you have radiocarbon dated to be from 6000 BCE. You know what time I lived in. The carvings seem similar to Banpo Script, but is it complex enough to be qualified as writing. You can think it's a form of proto-writing, but who knows, maybe it was me you found.
WRITING
Friends
Origin
Most writing systems can be divided in three categories; logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic. Logographs, a system of pictures and symbols, are considered the oldest form of writing. The major logogram writing systems are Hieroglyphs, Mayan Glyphs, Cuneiform, and Chinese character. The first believed writing system originated in Sumer (Southern Mesopotamia) in the form of cuneiform somewhere around the late 3rd millennium BCE. Egyptions, around the same time, invented hieroglyphs, becoming widespread by the mid 3rd millennium. The Chinese script originated around the 16th century BCE out of a late neolithic Chinese system of proto-writing dating back to 6000 BCE. The Mayan Glyphs also seemed to have developed independantly.
Chinese writing depicts each character to represent an idea or complete word, leaving no clue for the pronunciation. This required to knowledge of thousands of separate characters. Alphabets and syllabaries require a lot less symbols since they are based sounds.
The alphabet was invented in Ugarit around teh 2nd Millennium BCE. It was derived from Cuneiform writing system. This form of alphabet slowly evolved into the Phoenican alphabet. The Phoenicians, being great sea traders, spread the alphabet . It is considered the ancestory of all modern alphabets and syllabaries.
Uses
Writing allows us to notice changes over time. Without writing we can not fully understand history. And understanding history is one step closer to preventing repeated mistakes from happening. Sure with writing, we loose our memory. But we don't need it as much. With writing, we can think one step furthur and analyze and order information, categorizing. After all, analysis is a lot more important than memory. What's the use of remembering something if you can't understand it. Writing shares with us experience and knowledge other people have already done. We don't need to rediscover knowledge in every generation nor do we need to personally know people with specialized knowledge. Writing allows us to build on idea people have left behind so that we can advance and create new technology. Writing is knowledge, without it, how else would civilization learn from past mistakes.
Spread
The Phoenican alphabet spread to Carthage as the Punic Alphabet and was also adapted to form the Greek Alphabet (The first alphabetic system to use symbols for vowels). Greek was adopted by the Etruscans to become the Latin alphabet of the Roman Empire.
The spread of the Latin Alphabet was so great that it is considered as THE alphabet. It was used by the Americas, Western Europe, Africa, and a few areas in Asia, being adopted to form alphabets like Quechua, Guarani, Swahili, and Xhosa, Vietnamese, Malay, and Tagalog.
The Cyrillic alphabet, found in Eastern Orthodox Europe (Russian, Bulgarians, Serbians) was based on the Greek and Latin alphabet. The Greek Alphabet also inspired the Egyption Coptic script, Armenian and Georgian.
Aramic, adopted from Phoenicians, was found in Central Asia. It also went to the origin of Ethiopia to script Amharic. From Aramic, the Mongolian script was derived and Brahmi was derived for North India languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Gujarati. Southern India adapted an evolved North Indian syllabaries into languages like Pali, Tamil, and Singhalese. As Buddhism spread to South East Asia, the curved scripts also went further east.
There were many factors that helped spread written language. Merchant traders and religion were common vessels that allowed writing like Arabic to spread. The silk road, being a large trading route helped in the spread of writing. The creation of paper in China allowed writing to spread more quickly as it became more abundant.
Blog
I believe this is when I was formed as cuneiform. The Sumerians, living in southern Mesopotamia, had started using a system of clay tokens to represent commodities. I kept evolving until I was used to keep accounts. The method was by using a round-shaped stylus to inprint into the soft clay at differnt angles to record numbers. It didn't stop at the numbers though. Soon they used for creating pictographs using sharp stylus which would determine what was being counted. By 2500 BCE, they were using wedge-shaped stylus to create logograms that developed into something phonetic. In the end, cuneiform writing was a general writing systems which included logograms, syllables, and numbers.
Blog Entry 2: 400 CE
I have branched off of Phoenician, into Aramaic, to Nabatean, to finally this, Arabic. Used as the writing system for the Holy Quran, I spread quickly across the Din-ul-Islam. Merchants and traders travel across Asia through the Silk Road and I slowly spread. The word of Islam spreads quickly, with it, the Holy Quran, and me. People convert to the religion of peace and hope and I am learned and understood. In modern day, you can find me the official language of Northern Africa and the Middle East.
Blog Entry 3: 6000 BCE
You seem to have found something, historians. The question is, is it I, Writing...or something else...? You have no way of knowing and I have no way of telling. Sure you found some tortoise-shell carving that you have radiocarbon dated to be from 6000 BCE. You know what time I lived in. The carvings seem similar to Banpo Script, but is it complex enough to be qualified as writing. You can think it's a form of proto-writing, but who knows, maybe it was me you found.
The Wall
Bibliography
Tomlinson, Sue. History of Writing. delmar.edu. <http://www.delmar.edu/engl/instruct/stomlin/1301int/lessons/language/history.htm>.
Katsiavriades , Kryss. Writing. <http://www.krysstal.com/index.html#language>.
"Archaeologists Rewrite History ." China Daily China.org.cn. 12 June 2003. China Through a Lense. <http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jun/66806.htm>.